


He Promised the Sky Wouldn't Fall

by SpringZephyr



Category: Inazuma Eleven: Orion no Kokuin
Genre: Crushes, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Relationship Advice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26042326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpringZephyr/pseuds/SpringZephyr
Summary: Iwato always thought of himself as an optimistic person. And then it really dawned on him that the penpal he's still crushing on is, in fact, another boy.
Relationships: Iwato Takashi/Ichihoshi Hikaru
Kudos: 7





	He Promised the Sky Wouldn't Fall

**Author's Note:**

> Mostly, I write Inazuma gen fic, but I wanted to experiment with something here.
> 
> The beauty of me not specifying who the other couple is at the middle is that it can be whoever you guys want. Personally, I'm considering (beeeeeep).

Iwato was an optimistic person.

He was shy, bullied at school, and still afraid of the dark despite being in middle school – which only gave his bullies more ammunition against him – but he remained optimistic nonetheless. Of course, some of this was because he was lucky enough to have friends: Hattori had been bullied on Inakuni Island also, and even though Iwato was in another country right now, they'd started writing letters to keep in touch. Then there was Asuto and Norika, who listened to all of his problems and bought ice cream with him sometimes, and Goujin, who had little clout in their hometown, but sometimes managed to scare his bullies away regardless. Even Haizaki and Hiroto, whom he'd originally thought were terrifying, weren't so bad once you got to know them.

As long as you didn't talk to Hiroto before he'd eaten breakfast, that was. Unfortunately, Iwato had learned that one through experience.

Perhaps if Iwato had a few less instance of positivity in his life, he wouldn't be as optimistic anymore. On the other hand, the fact that he was usually able to slow down his breathing and focus on the good things at hand was one of the reasons he was. For example:

He was afraid of the dark, but not airplanes. The slow ascension into the sky kind of made his stomach drop, like he was an amusement park ride (they didn't have those on Inakuni).

He'd experienced what an amusement park was like, thanks to Aphrodi!

Recently, Kirina had helped him sign up for an email account. He and Hattori normally preferred to write paper letters, or sneak notes back and forth during and in between classes, but since that wasn't really an option anymore, they were resorting to email for now.

  
Ichihoshi is actually a good person.

XXX

The Ichihoshi from his penpal exchange program and the Ichihoshi he plays soccer with are the same person.

He told himself this a few times, in case he accidentally forgot it with everything that had happened since he learned the truth about Ichihoshi – Ichihoshi is actually a good person. For a moment, Iwato's positivity had almost failed him, but it had all worked out in the end. Even better, in a way, is the fact that the Ichihoshi Hikaru he'd been sending letters-slash-e-mails too this entire time is the same person he now plays soccer with nearly every day.

The thought of having met his beloved penpal in real life and that he and Iwato are playing in the same team together made Iwato's heart warm, made it twist in a way that caused Iwato to, very abruptly one day, realize something very important:

He had a crush on a guy.

“What should I do?” he mumbled, slouching over, his head hiding in the palms of his hands.

Naturally, he took his problem to someone he thought he could trust to resolve it – Aphrodi. There was nobody else in the room aside from Aphrodi, whom Iwato had come to respect as someone with limitless amounts of both patience and experience. While he could certainly see why Aphrodi was nicknamed after the goddess of beauty, sometimes Iwato thought naming him after the Greek deity of wisdom would have been more appropriate. And the fact that they were alone was a good thing, because Iwato suspected that if someone else had walked in, at that particular moment, he would've died from embarrassment.

Aphrodi remained silent for a moment, but it wasn't an uncomfortable pause. It meant he was thinking. Sometimes other people's silence frightened Iwato a little bit, but in Aphrodi's case, he knew there was always a reason for it.

“Don't try to repress it.”  
“I... I don't want to do that.”

“Good!”

“I don't know if I want to tell him either,” Iwato admitted. “It might make things weird.”

Thoughts of “What if Ichihoshi didn't like him back” swam through his mind. Or what if Ichihoshi thought he was gross. Iwato supposed he could always leave the team and move to Canada, even though he barely knew English and it'd be sad to do so, but what if...

What if Hattori...

No, Hattori would never judge him over something like that. Maybe Hiroto or Haizaki. Or that new kid, Atsuya – he was the younger brother of Shirou, who had seemed nice enough, but Iwato didn't quite have a feel for Atsuya yet.

“The rest of the team might not like me anymore. If they knew.”

“I wouldn't worry about that,” Aphrodi replied. “They would never admit to it, but there's a certain couple on our team that isn't nearly as inconspicuous as they think they are. Uh, I believe everyone else has noticed already? Nobody has a problem with it.”

Aphrodi laughed, probably trying to cover the fact that it was downright _adorable_ Iwato could be oblivious to something so obvious, but Iwato himself was unphased. His mind was already jumping straight to the next problem.

“What if Ichihoshi doesn't like me back?”

“Didn't you already tell him you liked him once, when you thought he was a girl?”

“Yes.”

“So he already knows.”

“I could ruin our friendship,” Iwato reiterated.

Although Iwato was normally a person of few words, once he became fixated on something, he was apparently quite adept at talking himself into a dark, little corner. Aphrodi tried a few times in vain to get his attention, and later swore that the more downcast Iwato began to look, the dimmer the lights in the room actually became.

He stopped worrying about what would happen if his teammates didn't accept him, and moved on to other things. Could a crush really cause an entire team to lose the Football Frontier International? Or cause all of the ice in Hokkaido to melt? Or even make clouds fall out of the sky? Apparently, Iwato thought it could.

Finally, Aphrodi clapped his hands to get his attention. This amount of worrying was clearly unhealthy. “Iwato, calm down! We have a saying in Zeus, do you want to hear it?”

“What's that?”

“Screw the haters. But if you want some advice, I know a few ways to tell if someone likes you without being conspicuous...”

XXX

Iwato is an optimistic person.

He was traveling the world playing soccer, something he'd only dreamed about doing before. His best friend emailed him daily. His teammates cared about his well-being. He'd made new friends since living the island, including one god, Aphrodi, and he was sort of on speaking terms with another god, Hiroto.

They were currently staying in a country that had beautiful landscapes and really good ice cream shops.

“I-ichihoshi...”

He tried to sound coy, like Aphrodi had told him to. _“Smile at him,” Aphrodi had said. “Act shy. If he looks at you when you look away, then he might be interested!”_

Somehow, Iwato had forgotten how to act shy and was now simply frozen in terror. This was the part where he was supposed to look away, he thought. Except he'd forgotten how to turn his head too.

This happened every time he confessed to someone. He would try to tell them, and anything resembling a coherent thought would suddenly disappear, like steam in the wind.

“Is something wrong?” Ichihoshi asked.

Ichihoshi laughed nervously, as the awkward silence stretched between them grew even thinner. “H-hey, is there something on my face?”

“I really, really like you!” Iwato blurted out, unable to handle the tension any longer.

Iwato had been rejected by every single one of his past crushes. As soon as he said it, he hid his face in his hands – similar to when he'd told Aphrodi, except now it was the real deal and he could feel a blush spreading all the way to the tips of his ears. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his mouth into a thin line, bracing himself for the inevitable rejection. Aphrodi may have managed to convince him the world wouldn't end, but that didn't make this part any easier.

Thankfully, Ichihoshi didn't make him wait very long for a response.

“Is that all?” Ichihoshi asked, prompting Iwato to peek at him through his fingers. He was smiling and his eyes were as bright as usual, like looking into a clear morning sky. “I like you too, Iwato!”

“I meant to say I really like you!”

“I really like you too.”

“But I really, really like you!”

“I really, really like you too!”

At this point, Ichihoshi was either more oblivious than Iwato had realized or he was serious. Both possibilities were scary; Iwato hadn't actually thought about what would happen if Ichihoshi accepted him.

“B-but I'm a guy,” Iwato said, recalling his initial hang up.

When he'd found out the Hikaru he'd been writing to in the hospital was a boy, he'd been so shocked he'd thought it had ended his crush completely. Then Ichihoshi had ended up on Inazuma Japan with him, and despite the initial road bumps, it had turned out he was the same Ichihoshi Hikaru he'd fallen in love with after all. He had all of his memories back now, but they still talked about the same things – the best flavors of candy, their favorite manga and anime, which professional soccer teams had the coolest uniforms.

Their problems.

Ichihoshi's memories of his brother. His time at Orion.

“So am I,” Ichihoshi replied, shrugging as if it didn't really matter.

Unlike Iwato, he was completely nonplussed by this revelation.

“Now come on,” he said, grabbing Iwato's hand, “let's go get some more ice cream.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have A LOT of Iwato headcanons, but he's a bit of an underrated character. I don't know if I'll ever get around to writing about them. D':


End file.
